Meet the 14-Year-Old Crossfit Queen Who Can Deadlift 205 Pounds

She's like a real life Supergirl.

From the annals of Instagram to the hallowed pages of The New York Times, the new female body aesthetic, which favors fitness over thinness, has arrived. For many of those who came of age in the early aughts, at the height of the so-called thinspo epidemic, this new turn toward valuing what your body can do instead of how it looks (#fitspo has nearly 23 million tags on Instagram, while the base spelling on #thinspo is itself banned from the social photo app) is a welcome change of pace.

Brooklin Smith, who turns 15 later this month, could be #fitspo’s poster girl, and for many Instagram users and CrossFit enthusiasts, she is already. When she was just 12 years old, Brooklin joined the CrossFit kids community, inspired by her father, Jeremy, whose own training sessions Brooklin observed with envy. After just a few months in the entry level kids group, Brooklin advanced to the teen division. “That’s what really sparked my interest and made me think that this is what I want to be doing [with my time],” she told me over Skype.

Brooklin had always been athletic, playing soccer, basketball, and volleyball as a kid. “Working out wasn’t new to me, but I’d never been that interested in it until CrossFit,” she says. “CrossFit has opened up new opportunities.” Brooklin didn’t last long with the teens, either. By the time she’d turned 13, Brooklin was working out alongside Crossfit’s adult athletes, by far the youngest person there. She is among the smallest, too, not that her petite stature is an excuse to take it easy. At just 5’1”, Brooklin can deadlift 205 lbs. Earlier this year, she qualified to compete in the CrossFit Games, a sort of Olympics for athletes in the CF community, with prizes, rankings, etc. “That was the best experience of my life,” she says. “Just being able to look back and say I worked my butt off to get here, that’s even better than being able to say I got 8th place at the CrossFit Games.”

As with any full-time hobby — just think of all the child actors — her commitment to CrossFit has forced Brooklin to take her time management seriously. She gets to school early in the morning to work with a tutor on subjects she struggles with; after school she’s at the gym training till 7 in the evening, then home to work on homework and rest. Her parents credit CrossFit for Brooklin’s academic diligence. When she first started working out in the gyms, Brooklin’s goal was to complete a proper muscle up (basically a pull-up combined with a dip). She got it in two and a half months. “It was the first goal she worked towards and achieved through her own hard work,” her father, Jeremy, remembers. “I’ve seen that translate to her schoolwork and academics.” She now owns the domain MuscleUpgirl.com.

Of course, the realities of being a teenage girl with a changing body, despite one’s own best efforts to maintain stasis, cannot be thwarted, no matter how intensely one works out. “I can walk into a room now and talk to anyone in it,” she says. “CrossFit has really strengthened by confidence.” Even at school, “I walk down the halls and see girls look me up and down, kind of sizing me up, and I can tell they’re intimidated.” There is something intimidating, in a good way, something aspirational, about a girl who is that comfortable in the strength of her own body. “I feel like I’m inspiring [my classmates],” muses Brooklin, who has noticed others begin to carry around a gallon jug of water, just like she does.

But are such high intensity workout actually safe physically for a growing young woman? Brooklin’s parents think yes. “CrossFit is really good about watching athletes,” says Jeremy. “They’re very good about watching for poor movement, or for someone who is overtraining.” They also encourage athletes to listen to their own bodies. “When Brooklin is having an off day, maybe she’s not feeling well or is really sore, she’ll scale it back.” The variety of the CrossFit workout, from day to day, is also designed to keep you safe. You’re working different body parts all the time, to avoid injury from overexertion. As with anything, moderation is key.

“If you’re unsure about trying something new, or you’re intimidated by going to the gym for the first time, or scared that it’s going to hurt: it’s going to be hard in the beginning, but once you get past knowing that, it’ll get easier,” says Brooklin. “Find what you love, whatever it is. I’m so lucky to have found CrossFit.”